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The family of Taj Muhammad Sarparah, a Baloch businessman who was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani intelligence agencies in Karachi, is on a five-day sit-in protest camp in front of the British Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, London, as reported by the Balochistan Post.
The protest is aimed at drawing attention to the issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. Taj Muhammad Sarparah's wife, children, relatives, and Baloch political activists based in the UK are participating in the protest, scheduled to continue until January 7. Salia Marri, the wife of the missing Taj Muhammad Sarparah and niece of Baloch national leader Baba Khair Bakhsh Marri, said that she has been actively working against the illegal detention and forced disappearance of her husband in Pakistan for the past four years. She expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of help from Pakistani authorities and the failure to present her husband before the court. However, she did not get any satisfactory help from the authorities in Pakistan and her husband was also not presented before the court, Balochistan Post reported. Marri further said that, being a Baloch citizen, she was subjected to forced disappearance by Pakistani state agencies. Moreover, according to her, the purpose of the protest in front of the house of the British Prime Minister was to demand the British government play a role in stopping the Pakistani violence in Balochistan and ensuring the recovery of the missing persons in Balochistan. Reportedly, Sarparah has appealed to Baloch political activists, other human rights members and the London media to participate in this sit-in protest. She further urged them to be their voice for the recovery of Taj Muhammad Sarparah and thousands of other Baloch missing persons, as reported by Balochistan Post. The announcement of a sit-in came after ongoing protests against the Baloch genocide and enforced disappearances at the National Press Club of Islamabad. Serving them an ultimatum, the Baloch Yakjahti Committee-Kech stressed that during this week, the state needs to clarify to the Baloch people how serious they are about addressing the issue of the Baloch genocide. "It must be practically proven that all forms of human rights violations, including forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and illegal actions, immediately cease in Balochistan," the committee stated further. (ANI)
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